Calamity Jane (1953) on Netflix
Approved19531h 41mComedyMusicalRomance
In Deadwood, sharpshooter Calamity Jane spars with Wild Bill Hickok and pines for Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin. When the saloon's act falls apart, she rides to Chicago to fetch a famous singer.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.2/1012,354 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes73%
Trailer
Plot summary
Late in the nineteenth century in Deadwood, in the Dakota Territory, Jane Canary, called Calamity Jane, rides and shoots as well as any man and guards the stagecoach on its runs against Sioux war parties. Her skill is matched by Wild Bill Hickok, a friendly rival she counts as her best friend, while she carries an unspoken love for Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin, who thinks of her only as a comrade. Deadwood has few women, so the owner of the Golden Garter saloon hires actresses to entertain his patrons, and when his latest booking fails, Calamity promises to bring back the celebrated Chicago singer Adelaid Adams. In Chicago she meets Katie Brown, Adelaid's maid, who longs for a stage career of her own.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Beulah Archulettaas Indian Woman on Saloon Balcony (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Calamity Jane (1953)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Historians have found no proof Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok were more than acquaintances. When she died in 1903 at 51 she was buried beside him at her request, and four men who planned her funeral later said that, since Hickok had "absolutely no use" for her in life, they meant it as a posthumous joke.
- Out magazine described the film's award-winning song "Secret Love" as "the first gay anthem". Asked in a 2011 interview with The Advocate about the song being embraced by the gay community, Day, then 89 and long retired, replied: "I was not aware of that, but that's wonderful."
- The film has been popular with lesbian audiences for a character that can be read as lesbian, and was screened at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 2006, 53 years after its release; critic Jamie Stuart points to Jane sharing a house with a woman and the pair painting "Calam and Katie" on the door.
- Warner Bros. devised Calamity Jane in response to the success of the 1950 MGM film Annie Get Your Gun. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Secret Love" by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster, and was also nominated for scoring and sound.
